I first laid the dress out and let out the skirt hem. Then I cut out the zipper with about a 2" of fabric around it. I did this because I don't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine yet and so decided to work my away around that. Then I cut the top of the dress off where the zipper ended.
So I didn't
take pictures of some of the stages of purse growth but I made some
cording out of gold material with some hot glue, thick string and some
hope. I don't have any experience in cording and am not sure how it's
traditionally done. There is probably a better way than I did it but I
just cut a strip of the gold fabric and positioned the string into place
with some help of some hot glue and some fingertips that are not heat
resistant unfortunately. I then folded the fabric over the string and
sandwiched it between the 2 used to be hems at the bottom of the skirt
of the dress and blasted it through the sewing machine. Must say, did
not turn out half bad for my first time.
So at this point I have the body built and the zipper is in and the cording detail at the bottom is in and finished. The plan is to take the 2 bottom corners and bring them up and sew halfway up the side to create a rounded, half-moon slouch. I'm kind of making this up as I go along so I'm not sure how I will attach those corners because they are too thick to just sew on with the machine.
Cording:
Zipper:
Shape now:
Rough goal for finished shape:
